The present invention relates to a device for dough production and a method of dough production.
Such a device or method specified are generally known from prior art; particularly in connection with large-scale or industrial bread production, kneading of the dough required for the subsequent baking operation.
In concrete terms, in the devices known from prior art, the ingredients—typically flour, yeast, and salt—are kneaded in a mixing chamber together with water to form a dough using mechanical kneading tools; in this regard so-called spiral kneaders or continuously working kneaders are known from prior art.
However, especially in an industrial context—the device for the production of dough has here the character of an industrial manufacturing system—the realisable kneading speed and expenditure of energy required for the kneading operation is of paramount importance; not least in the field of large-scale bakery production, such factors which have an immediate impact on the production costs have proven to be crucial success factors in a competitive market.
If you take a conventional production line with a production capacity of one metric ton of dough per hour for instance, the typical energy requirement of conventional kneading processes is about 16 kWh per metric ton, in more modern, continuous kneading processes it is about 8 kWh. Moreover, the problem arises that for an hourly capacity of about one metric ton, production lines of considerable size are needed, since the actual kneading operation (typically 10 minutes for one batch) is relatively long.
There is a need here for optimization, both with regard to the throughput (i.e. the kneading performance or kneading volume achievable with a production line of a predetermined kneading volume), as well as with regard to the energy expenditure needed per batch of kneaded dough, so that, especially against a background of substitution technologies, the approaches within that product group towards industrial dough production remain competitive.
The object of the present invention is therefore to improve a generic device, both with regard to its processing speed per unit of kneaded dough, as well as with regard to the required energy consumption per unit of kneaded dough.